Absolutely Blessed

HI EVERYONEEEE! I want to start off by saying that I'm SO extremely happy. Got out of work at Old Navy super early, just in time to take a 2 hour nap and still have plenty of time to get ready for my busy day ahead. Today, my co worker/big brother  MC Vicc and I interviewed the biggest South Asian artist in North America at the moment, Mickey Singh. I have to say I've actually totally been fan-girling because ever since his new album Mick'stape came out, I honestly haven't been listening to anything else. It's awesome to see people in our community getting so far and making a name for themselves. The interview went extremely well and Mickey is extremely friendly and down to Earth.

Anyways, back to the point of this blog. I just wanted to take the time out to say THANK YOU to each and every single person who has supported me throughout the years. I still have a long way to go, but the amount of love and support I've been getting has been overwhelming and I couldn't be happier. Although the past year or so has been super tough, and things still kind of suck, lately I've been in such a positive mood that almost nothing can bring me down. (and no this is NOT a hint for the haters to try and change that).
Over the years I really wasn't taken seriously in regards to my career because I didn't have a fan base. I continued to think I literally had like 5 listeners and I actually still kind of do. Except now I think it's more like 10 listeners. But the amount of strangers messaging me and tweeting me saying that they listen to my show has honestly taken me completely by surprise. Also, those close to me who have never really acknowledged my hard work have been doing so and that too, a lot more than usual.
I'm far from being able to say I've attained success because I have such a far way to go but I just really wanted to reach out and thank everyone so much for their support. Some may thing their compliments and well wishes don't count but trust me, they really do. For the past couple of weeks I've felt like a completely new person. I've been a lot more confident in myself, which many know that I've struggled with and I have a new faith in my career path and in my show on Radio Asia which at one point I was thinking of giving up on. Thank you for giving me the support to convince me to continue following my dreams. Every postitive comment counts and I'm so thankful that people have considered me worthy of those compliments.  Here's one message I've gotten out of the many that really stood out to me
"Hey!

Just wanted to say that you are GREAT... keep doing what you are doing...unknowingly you have provided confidence to many brown girls growing up in their teens right now

Peace!!"

This was truly amazing and I had to read it over and over to understand what this guy actually wrote. I never had any role models growing up, because I was a total loner and didn't know anything about anything. A couple of years ago I came across someone named IISuperwomanII, and she became that role model I never had. A few years later, I came across the work of another South Asian woman who has taken the entertainment industry by storm by the name of Irene Sarah Mahmud, now Irene Sarah Mahmud Khan. She's an internationally published photographer, beauty blogger/guru on YouTube and she just directed her first music video which is the video for 'Bad Girl' by Mickey Singh and her husband Waseem Khan. I think Irene and Waseem are seriously the desi version of Beyonce and Jay Z. Role models are so important, specially at that stage in your life when you're trying to find yourself and figure your life out and I'm so glad I found out about these two women. Of course the women in my family like my late Nani and my sister Jasmine are two of the biggest influences in my life along with TV talk show host Gurmeet Sodhi, because these women were/are truly beautiful inside and out. But I've known ever since day 1 that I wanted to be a role model for your girls just as Superwoman and Irene have been for me, so for someone to tell me that is the absolute BEST compliment I could ever receive.

In other news, Saini Surinder listened to Bhangra Beats and tweeted me saying he was tuned in, and then he followed me on twitter which obviously absolutely made my life.

SO once again, thank you for your continuous love and support. I really wouldn't be able to do anything without you guys, and I still have a long way to go so please continue to support me. :)

United? I don't think so.

"I think it's safe for me to say that the India Day Parade(s) in Edison/Iselin get worse every year. It's sad that instead of celebrating our unity and independence some people are fighting against each other for "power" and TV time. If they really cared about actually celebrating and bringing the community together, these people would put their differences aside for this one event and meet that goal. The South Asian community in Edison/Iselin was one of the strongest and things like this show everyone how "united" our community really is. "

This status that I posted on Facebook after the India Day Parades in central Jersey got a huge response from other locals. The truth is that although the supposed leaders in our community put up a facade of everyone being "united" we're really not. Or at least they're not. For those who don't know, Edison used to have one huge parade every year to celebrate India's independence. For the past couple of years some power hungry poor excuses for die hard Indians have taken over and made it a complete shit show, for lack of a better word. The parade has been separated into 2 separate ones by two different community groups. So now instead of having one combined parade and cultural show we now have two parades (which end up lasting like 20 min each), two cultural shows, hundreds of confused Indians, and a handful of really stupid power hungry people.  It's pretty sad that we're celebrating our unity and independence as a country yet everyone is so divided. The South Asian community has become a joke as more people do things for their own personal benefit rather than the entire Indian community, which is how it used to be. It's also sad that people, specially the youth are losing interest in our own events and celebrations because of all of these selfish egotistical people. Growing up this parade was all about being proud to be Indian and seeing everyone who you haven't seen in a while. Now most people would rather NOT be anywhere near the parade. Even the police officers in each town genuinely had fun at this event even though they were working and now you'll honestly very rarely see a smile on their faces during the parades. The cultural shows are pathetic. The one on the Edison side had all those uncles fighting for the mic and TV time and TWO dance performances. I'm sure the Iselin side was slightly better but that didn't last long either. 
In my opinion we, the youth need to stand up and take over. These uncles need to be retired and be shown how things are really done and we should be the ones to show them.  If things keep going the way they are, we're going to lose touch with our great culture and history just because of some uneducated guys that think they can speak English but fail miserably. I'm sure many other people who grew up going to this parade feel the same way. I want to go back to the feeling of seeing hundreds of proud Indians flooding Oak Tree Road again because when I was younger, rain or shine, it would always be absolutely packed. I want to see people on the floats again, not just 2 random uncles fighting to face the TV cameras. I want this to be a CELEBRATION again, not a popularity contest.
And one more thing I would like to add is that I want to see some healthy competition between the DJs again. This year as DJ's passed each others floats I would see them giving the most dirty looks to each other which was pretty pathetic.